Behind the Mask | The Voice of Africa's LGBTI Community

Constitution Hill, one of South Africa’s most important heritage sites, last Friday October 28 paid homage to the LGBTI community with an event themed ‘Queer Love Is a Human Right.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Akoro Joseph Sewedo, Behind the Mask’s Correspondent takes a critical look at the impact of international NGOs on LGBT and in particular MSM organisations in Nigeria.  Read the rest of this entry »

On August 12 the Kenyan Education Ministry Permanent Secretary (PS), James Ole Kiyiapi was reported as saying that cases of homosexuality in Kenyan high schools were on the increase. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday July 30 was the day of the Durban Pride march which was attended by lot of LGBTI people from all over South Africa and beyond. Behind The Mask was there to speak to people about the Pride march and their expectations for future marches. Read the rest of this entry »

 LGBT rights activism in West African is considerably under developed when compared to the activism in eastern and southern Africa. The West African sub-region seems to be the most conservative part of the African continent.  Read the rest of this entry »

Fundamental human rights are interrelated and interdependent. Discrimination against anyone on the basis of perceived or real sexual orientation, gender expression and identity is a core violation of human rights. Read the rest of this entry »

As the LGBTI community in Kenya we are preoccupied in dealing with prejudice and homophobia in society and we sometimes forget cover the bases of our own lives, loved ones and livelihoods. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 United Nations political declaration on HIV/Aids denies the existence of key segments of the population and does not express commitment toward dealing with the increasing HIV epidemic amongst populations that are most at risk of HIV infection. Read the rest of this entry »

OPINION: It’s now almost three months since David Kato, a former teacher and a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, was beaten to death in Mukono Town in Uganda. Kato was living in Johannesburg in the salad days of our new democracy and, inspired by the progress made here in recognising the legal right of gay people to an equal humanity, he became a key figure in the Ugandan Read the rest of this entry »

OPINION: The media has always been criticized for lack of coverage of LGBTI issues and when they did cover, issues would arise that the media misrepresents the LGBTI community, sensationalizing their stories and only focusing on scandals. Read the rest of this entry »